Recruitment Opportunities Abound for U.S. Universities as Canadian High Schools Graduate "Double Cohort" in 2003

University at Buffalo focusing on recruiting most talented students

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- As many as 75,000 Canadian high school
graduates could be migrating to the United States next year to fill
seats in college and university classrooms unavailable to them in
their homeland.

The students are expected to be turned away in droves by
Canadian universities unable to accommodate next year's surge in
the number of high school graduates from the Ontario Province. The
anticipated increase was created by the provincial government's
decision in 1997 to shorten Ontario's traditional five-year high
school program to four years, thus producing a graduating class of
grades 12 and 13 in 2003 and eliminating grade 13 thereafter.

As a result, an estimated 290,000 students will graduate from
Ontario high schools in 2003 -- nearly twice as many as this year.
The numbers are stressing an already space-strapped Canadian
higher-education system. And without increased government funding,
many of the major universities are unwilling to build new space or
increase operating costs for a one-time enrollment phenomenon.

To meet the demand already created by Ontario's monster-sized
class of 2003, the University at Buffalo is among U.S. institutions
gearing up to recruit the most talented of the students, called
"double-cohort" students in Canada.

"There are hundreds of "A-minus" and "B" students who won't be
able to be admitted by a Canadian university; there just isn't room
for them," explains Joseph J. Hindrawan, UB assistant vice provost
and director of international enrollment management. "This
situation is creating a tremendous amount of anxiety among Canadian
students and their parents."

Contributing to the anxiety is Canada's hierarchical
higher-education system, which differentiates between the prestige
of attending a university or a college. According to Hindrawan,
many students who don't get into a Canadian university will prefer
to attend a U.S. university rather than one of their local
colleges.

To recruit those students left out in the cold and to ease
parental fears, Hindrawan and Steven L. Shaw, UB's director of
international admissions, have stepped up their attendance at
college fairs in Canada -- as have representatives from several
other U.S. institutions. In the fall, when the college-recruiting
season gets into full swing, they plan a direct-mail campaign
targeting the double-cohort students and have established a Web
site -- http://wings.buffalo.edu/intadmit/canadian
-- addressing the needs and concerns of Canadian students.

Although UB has not set an enrollment goal for Canadian
students, Hindrawan and Shaw expect to easily eclipse the 2001-02
enrollment of 129 Canadian undergraduates, with most of the
students accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis. An influx of
English-speaking Canadian students also will help UB diversify its
population of 3,000 -- mostly Asian -- international students.

"There's a socio-political motivation to our efforts, as well,"
says Shaw. "This is an opportunity for us to build better relations
with our neighbors to the north and help them through this
difficult period."

Shaw and Hindrawan anticipate that UB and other SUNY
institutions -- such as SUNY College at Oswego, SUNY College at
Plattsburgh and SUNY College at Oneonta -- should be particularly
attractive to Canadian students because of the schools' proximity
to Ontario and because of their relatively inexpensive tuition --
an important consideration given the poor U.S. exchange rate for
the Canadian dollar, which puts Canadians at a disadvantage. But
they also expect some private institutions to get into the game by
offering discounted tuition to Canadians. (New York State law
prohibits SUNY institutions from discounting tuition.)

"Because of the cost issue, most of the double-cohort students
who come to the U.S. probably will be from financially well-off
families," Hindrawan says.

The price of tuition, however, is not the only hurdle for many
Canadians considering enrollment in U.S. institutions, Hindrawan
adds. The cohort issue is fraught with parental worries and
nationalistic angst. Many Canadians, especially Canadians born and
bred in the country, dislike the prospect of sending their children
to a non-Canadian university and would rather keep them closer to
home.

And because the issue is so politically charged throughout
Ontario, many high-school guidance counselors are reluctant to
explicitly recommend U.S. institutions to students and parents.

"Most parents strongly prefer their child's first degree be from
a Canadian university," says Shaw. "They don't mind if they get a
graduate degree elsewhere, but there is a lot of prestige
associated with attending Canadian universities.

"Canadian immigrants, however, don't have those preferences," he
adds. "For them, having to enroll in a U.S. university won't be an
issue."

In the long run, Hindrawan and Shaw hope that recruitment of
cohort students will help change perceptions in Canada regarding
attending U.S. institutions, making it easier for UB and other U.S.
universities to recruit more Canadian students in the future.